the wave has left the shore the storm has left nothing behind a man is out there searching for something he can't find the shepherd has found his one lost sheep got back and found the other thousand gone so hard to stand up straight see life in the eye without being someone else so hard to stand up straight she always walked the line one day found a track made of tiny stones her candle was lit but the storm will blow it out the stones will close her eyes. from what she wants to see she won't see me no so hard to stand up straight see life in the eye without being someone else a girl was found but it wasn't hers try not to fail out you said you would be with me until the end

The storm is the break-up or removal of the girl from his life. He's looking back at the storm, seeing how she/the storm completely destroyed his life/emotions. The girl has moved on and forgotten about him ('She won't see me') but he's still dwelling on it ( 'A man is out there searching...') He says it's hard to live in reality, to know she's gone, to stand up strait and see life in the eye.

General Commenti think that this song is about religion, not love. i see it as a story of a girl who is either trying to follow christianity or has fallen and doesn't know how to get back to where she used to be. Karl talks about the shepherd finding his one lost sheep which is biblical story. He says, "so hard to stand up straight without being someone else," meaning the girl he's singing about doesn't know who she really is, and how hard it is to live a christian life and keep her sense of self. a relationship with God is often compared to a flame, and it says her flame was blown out by the storm, meaning that something happened to her that caused her to fall. In the end the song gets personalized with the line that i see as Karl speaking to God "you said you would be with me until the end."
so there you have it, my two cents :)

General CommentSo i take this song to be about a guy whose girl left him after having some sort of identity crisis and she freaked out and became somebody different. she lost the life / light that was inside of her. Even though it seems like the storm is over now, she's just in the eye of the storm but she doesn't realize it because her eyes are closed. She has lost herself and doesn't know. He is in love with her and misses the person she used to be.